Where the Wild Things Are

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

Beginning this school year, we introduced two morning theater classes as part of our Creative Expressions program. Our Monday class works with Primera Basico (12-13 year olds) and focuses on collaboration, team work, and imagination. Sara El-Solh, the Library Coordinator, is working with me (Elena Chernock, the Creative Expressions Program Coordinator) to adapt the story ¨Where the Wild Things Are¨ into a stage production. We will use our imaginations to create another world for the students to live and express themselves in….

a world of wild things!

The second class we work with is Diversificado (15-19 year olds). This class focuses a little more on technique and on more challenging subject matter. We started the year focusing on monologue writing. Students brainstormed reasons behind making certain choices – for instance the choice to use drugs or not – and then selected one particular reason from their list. Using that motivation, students next created a character and wrote a monologue about the character’s background and how it led up to a moment in their life when they made this particular choice. We are also currently exploring activties from Augosto Boal´s Image Theater in order to learn how to express our own internal feelings to our audiences. Every week, the students push themselves a little more, and I can’t wait to see what we come up with!

Recently, the students were lucky enough to participate in a mask-making workshop led by volunteer Judy Seal. The students loved learning how to use their bodies to express emotions that were represented on the masks. This also gave them a sense of security that they could try out new things without the vulnerability of showing their faces.

Safe Passage | Camino Seguro

Our Mission is to create opportunities and foster dignity through the power of education.

Safe Passage, a US-registered 501(c)(3) organization, works with hundreds of the poorest at-risk children of families working in the Guatemala City garbage dump. Within a safe and caring environment, we provide a comprehensive and integrated program that fosters hope, good health, educational achievement, self-sufficiency, self esteem and confidence.